


What Happens On Earth

by sun_moon_and_stars



Series: The Girl Who Knows Everything [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 08:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14973491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sun_moon_and_stars/pseuds/sun_moon_and_stars
Summary: 100 juvenile delinquents have been sent to Earth as a test to see if the planet is survivable again. Little do they know, there's more to it than that. There is one among them who knows the secrets of them all. Soon they discover that they are not alone and it becomes a race to survive not only the strange occurrences of Earth but also its last inhabitants. Friendships old and new are tested, trust is broken, love blossoms and war wages on. The 100 are in for the greatest adventures of their lives.





	1. Whatever The Hell We Want

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the beginning of my series rewrite for The 100. I've planned a fun adventure for everyone and I hope that you'll enjoy it as much as I do. Subscribe, like, and comment if you want to see more!

_97 years ago, Earth was destroyed by a nuclear apocalypse; after the bombs went off, all life on the planet ceased to exist as it became coated in radiation. All life, except for those that had managed to survive, they lived in space. It_   _was_   _believed that Earth needed 100 years to become inhabitable again. My mother and I_   _were_ _only two people out of the_ _many that live on the Farm Station, one section out of the 12 that made_ _up our home, The Ark._

_We were responsible for growing the various edible vegetables and plants we would need for food, as well as medicinal herbs used for healing ... and my personal favorite, moonshine._  

_My two best friends and I often dreamed of the day we'd be able to see Earth for ourselves; now, fresh air fills my lungs, water flows between my toes. Finally, after nearly 100 years in space, humanity is home. We are home._  

_Too bad this is only a dream..._  

_~_

The commotion outside my cell door ripped me from my slumber and pulled me back to reality. I am one of the hundreds of young prisoners here, locked up for various reasons. Crimes committed on the Ark are punishable by death unless you're under 18, then you're thrown in a windowless cell with only one door and left to your own imagination. We call it Lockup, the Sky Box. We're only allowed to see our families on Visitation Day, other than that our time here is spent dreading the approach of our 18th birthday, the day in which our cases are put on trial and it's decided whether we deserve to be released or executed. 

I'm three days away from my 18th birthday and as luck would have it, fate is not on my side. 

As the noise outside my door grew in volume, I groaned and placed the small, lumpy pillow over my face in an attempt to block out the sound. Whatever was going on outside was cutting into one of the last good dreams I would probably ever have. The sounds of chaos outside became clearer as the door to my cell was swung open and a guard's voice met my ears. I threw my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, backing away slowly. 

"Prisoner 2-1-4, turn and face the wall. Hold out your right arm." The guard's voice was rough and the sentence stiff, as if he'd been saying the same thing all day. He eyed me firmly, three others stepped into my cell behind him. 

"No," I began, shaking my head. My back hit the cool metal of the wall behind me, I had nowhere else to go. "No, I still have three days." 

"Face the wall and hold out your right arm. You will not be told again." He continued to approach, a box held firmly in his hands. Electricity crackled in the batons held by his colleagues, they waited for him to give the command. He held up his hand, stopping the men in their tracks. He set the box on the small metal table next to the bed and grabbed me by the arms, forcing me to spin around. My chest was slammed into the wall, knocking some of the air from my lungs. 

"I have three days! You can't do this!" I cried out forcefully, gasping for fair. 

Without another word, one of the other guards stepped forward and opened the box, then clamped something down around my wrist. I winced as a sharp pain shot up my arm, my fingers tingled. The guard pinning me to the wall pulled me away and spun us around again, shoving me forward through the door. "Move." 

I knew it made no sense to struggle, but my fight or flight response had already been activated and as I was forced into the brightness of the lights outside my cell, I realized that I wasn't the only one. The screams of the other prisoners were loud and full of fear, this was it. They were killing us off. I took a deep breath and tried to pull my arm free of the guard's grasp, his fingers tightened and his nails dug into my skin but I wasn't about to give up easily. I felt the hard material of his safety vest pressed up against my back and I took my chance; I looked down momentarily then jerked my head up, crashing the back of my skull into his nose. There was a sickening crack as the bridge of his nose broke and the grip he had on my arm disappeared. I whirled around quickly, ducking away from the grabbing hands of the other three guards and made a run for it. But I didn't get very far. Just as I approached the end of the row of cells on my floor, I felt a dull pinch in the back of my neck. With nowhere else to go, I slumped to the floor as darkness overtook my consciousness. The last thing I remembered was faintly hearing my name called as my limp form was dragged away with the others. 

I awoke to the feeling of being shaken, a squeezing hand on my shoulder alerted me to the presence of someone beside me. There had to have been 100 or so different voices around me, all currently muffled by the ringing in my ears. I was alive. But how? 

"Danny... Danny..." I slowly opened my eyes as two voices became distinctly recognizable to me as those of my closest friends, my best friends. Blinking through my haze, I carefully turned my head in the direction of their voices, my head was pounding. I raised my right arm and pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead, wincing at the small stab of pain in my wrist. 

"What the hell?" My voice felt rough like sandpaper. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth at the sight of Jasper Jordan and Monty Green strapped to a metal wall on either side of me, held up by the same red harness that sat snug against my own chest. It felt strange to be able to see them again after being isolated for so long in the Sky Box, but I was happy to no longer be alone. 

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Sunshine!" Jasper's voice spoke his cheery greeting for me. I was happy to know that it had remained the same after so long apart, a small comfort among the confusion I had been feeling ever since the guard stepped into my cell. 

"Jasper! Monty! What are you guys doing here? Where are we?" I asked, finally able to take in my surroundings. My earlier assumption about there being a hundred different voices was correct; they'd emptied out the Sky Box and we were now strapped in different places on some sort of ship, but for what, I had no idea. 

"We don't know. Some guards came in, slapped these metal cuffs onto our wrists and hauled us all out of the Sky Box. All 100 of us." Monty's reply returned my attention to the two boys with me. He didn't sound too worried, but I chalked it up to the adrenaline that was no doubt coursing through his veins, as well as mine and the others. 

"All 100 of us..." My thought was cut off by the sudden jerking of the ship, I heard one of the prisoners telling someone that it was the atmosphere, further confirming my suspicion that we were moving. Screens scattered around the ship blinked to life and Chancellor Jaha appeared in front of us. 

"Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance, and as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself. We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable." Chancellor Jaha's message was saying. I kept my eyes glued to the screen, multiple questions were running through my mind and I knew the video was the only way to get them answered. 

"Your dad's a dick, Wells." Someone called out from across the ship. Wells Jaha, now what the hell was he doing on the ship? He was the Chancellor's son. 

I chuckled along with the others, my respect for Wells Jaha had worn thin a long time ago and was nonexistent from the moment I'd been put in Lockup. But I couldn't believe that his dad would have allowed him to come with the rest of us. I filed that under the  _Things to Find Out Later_  column of questions in my head and kept listening to the Chancellor's video message. "And if, however, you do survive, then your crimes will be forgiven. Your records wiped clean. The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough nonperishables to sustain 300 people for up to two years. No one ever made it there..." 

My attention was pulled away from the video when one of the boys unbuckled himself from his harness and came floating in our direction. I rolled my eyes and grinned, at least someone was making the most of this shitty situation we'd suddenly found ourselves in. 

"Spacewalk Bandit strikes again!" Another boy called out. Ah, everyone knew of the Spacewalk Bandit, Finn Collins. It was no surprise that he was with us, too. 

"Go, Finn! Woo!" The chorus of cheers for Finn kept coming, he'd become somewhat of a celebrity among pretty much all of us. 

Finn was floating on his back, he stopped himself in front of Wells. "Check it out. Your dad floated me after all." 

At that, I giggled. It was no secret that none of us liked Chancellor Jaha or his son. 

"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy." Of course, Wells was already instructing one of us as if he was the one in charge. Asshole. 

I looked back over at Jasper and Monty, lowering my voice enough so that they were the only ones who could hear me. "We get locked up for stealing a few of The Ark's precious herbs and somehow CJ finds himself strapped in here with the rest of us Delinquents? I don't buy that bull for one second." CJ, Chancellor Junior. It was a name we'd given to Wells as a joke, one that stuck around as our hatred for his father and what he stood for grew. 

The boys chuckled, but before they could reply, another voice I'd come to hate cut through the air. "Hey, you two, stay put if you want to live." 

Clarke Griffin. I didn't know much about her, except that she'd been friends with Wells at some point in her life. And it was her close association to CJ that automatically made me hate her, too. Did she deserve my deep-seated grudge and anger? Probably not. Did I give a rat's ass? Definitely not. 

_"Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately."_  I could vaguely hear the Chancellor's message continuing on but I was more interested in Finn and the others to care. 

"Hey, you're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year." I heard Finn saying to Clarke. Traitor? Good Girl Clarke got herself locked up, too? 

"You're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk." She bit back. I had to hand it to her, the girl's got spunk. 

"But it was fun. I'm Finn." 

_"Your one responsibility is to stay alive..."_  The message continued to drone on and I groaned. I'd listened to the Chancellor speak enough while growing up on The Ark, yet it seemed like, despite the fact that we were in a Dropship on our way to uncertain death, we couldn't get away from him. 

"Stay in your seats," Clarke demanded, addressing the same boy across from her. Just then, the ship seemed to be yanked back and Finn was sent flying into the wall next to us. The parachutes had deployed. I let out a surprised scream as his back collided with the metal wall and Clarke called out to him. "Finn, are you okay?" 

Electricity crackled and sparks flew from the cables above us. I could tell that something was wrong, we were descending to the planet's surface way too fast. The automatic safety precautions should have kicked in and taken over the moment we began our free fall to Earth, they hadn't. The ship was now filling with smoke, it was no use getting worked up over, we'd be dead in a matter of minutes anyway. I let go of my harness and reached out on either side of me, grasping Jasper and Monty's hands in my own. If I was going to die, at least I had my two best friends with me. The expressions on their faces mirrored my own, we had accepted that we were meant to live short lives a long time ago. In a way, we figured this was better than our families being forced to watch us float through space until our bodies eventually exploded. 

"I would follow you guys anywhere." I offered with a squeeze of their hands, it was something we'd always said to each other, our promise that no matter what happened to us, we'd always be best friends. They nodded their heads in agreement and returned the gentle pressure with their hands. The three of us took deep breaths and closed our eyes, preparing for the end. But it never came. Instead, our eyes shot open as the rockets finally came on, but it was too late. We were still falling much too fast for them to do anything. If the fall didn't kill us all, the landing sure would. There was a crash and then every system on the ship could be heard powering down. 

After a few seconds, Monty spoke up on my right, pulling mine and Jasper's attention to him. "Listen. No machine hums." 

Jasper's eyes met mine and he glanced up at the ceiling of the ship. "Whoa, that's a first." 

I was about to reply when the buckles on our harnesses loosened and like everyone else, we slipped out of them. Clarke's voice once again made its way to my ears and I glanced over just in time to see her climb out of her seat and descend the stairs a few feet away from us. She was crouched down next to a lifeless body. "Finn, is he breathing?" 

Finn shook his head near the second one. Our first casualties. 

"The outer door is on the lower level. Let's go." A voice called out and everyone started to make their way down the ladder. 

"No. We can't just open the doors." Clarke called back, standing from her position and heading after them. 

"What the hell are we waiting for? Let's go!" The enthusiasm in my voice mixed with the sheer curiosity of what could possibly be outside had me, Jasper and Monty, out of our spots in an instant. Whatever was out there had to have been better than being floated. We joined the large group of prisoners down below, waiting to see the doors opened and get our first taste of the freedom waiting for us outside. 

"Hey, just back it up, guys." Another voice I didn't recognize was instructing the group of kids trying to push their way to the front. 

"Stop! The air could be toxic." Clarke shouted over the rest of our voices, she pushed herself through the crowd and stood in front of him. 

"If the air is toxic, we're all dead anyway." He told her, turning to the handle beside the door. 

"Bellamy?" A young woman's voice drew all of our eyes to the back of the ship, she slowly made her way forward. Octavia Blake. I'd heard stories, everyone had. It was rumored before last year, that one of the families on The Ark had broken the most important law of our society, someone had a secret second child. And then, one day last year, they'd been found out. The Chancellor floated their mother and the child was put in Lockup with the rest of us. If that was Octavia Blake, then the man in front of us was her older brother, Bellamy. She was the reason he was on the ship. 

"My God, look how big you are." Bellamy smiled at his little sister, taking in the full sight of her before pulling her in for a hug. I knew it was none of my business, but I couldn't look away. Something about the way he looked at her, the fact that he was clearly going to do whatever it took to protect her, it made me wish that I'd had someone who cared about me as much. 

"What the hell are you wearing, a guard's uniform?" Octavia asked, looking up and down at the strange clothes Bellamy wore. 

"I borrowed it to get on the Dropship. Someone's got to keep an eye on you." He smirked, not even trying to hide how ironic the situation seemed and pulled her into another embrace. 

I glanced over at Clarke who had been silent this whole time and noticed her staring ahead at the two of them, I could tell from the way she had been watching the interaction between the reunited siblings that she was about to put her foot in her mouth. Something I could only assume that she did quite often, something that was bound to get on my nerves. "Where's your wristband?" 

Octavia whirled around to face the blonde. "Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." 

"No one has a brother." One of the guys across the way spoke up. Obviously, he hadn't heard about the discovery of Aurora Blake's second child that led to her execution. 

"That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden in the floor." One of the girls called out. Of course, leave it to these idiots to say something stupid and almost cause a riot. At this point, if the air didn't kill us all, we would end up killing each other. 

The expression on Octavia's face contorted into one of rage and she started in the direction of the girl who'd spoken up about her, luckily Bellamy was quicker than she was and he was able to pull her back to him. 

"Octavia. Octavia, no. Let's give them something else to remember you by." 

"Yeah? Like what?" 

"Like being the first person on the ground in 100 years." 

A satisfied smile replaced the anger on Octavia's face and she stepped back as Bellamy turned to the lever beside the door. This was it. 100 of us were about to see Earth for the first time since the nuclear war that had wiped out every living thing on the planet. I waited with my eyes trained on the doors, the anticipation of it all was enough to get me bouncing on the balls of my feet. I turned my head to the left when I felt Jasper's hand closed around mine and squeeze, he always knew when I was becoming too excited for my own good and it was his way of bringing me back down a few notches. 

I reached to the right of me and grabbed onto Monty's hand as well. We were about to embark on the craziest adventure of our lives, together. I raised my eyebrows excitedly and giggled when he just shook his head in response, both boys more than used to my hyperactivity by now. With an apologetic shrug, I returned my gaze forward. 

Bellamy reached up and gripped the handle, he waited for a second then pulled it down. Time seemed to slow down as the latch released and the doors slowly gave way to the daylight outside. It was so bright, much brighter than anything I could have ever dreamed of. And here I was, sandwiched between my two best friends, about to set foot on the ground. 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, feeling, hearing. Sunlight. Breeze. Birds. Everything I had ever dreamed of was now right in front of me and I couldn't believe it. I watched Octavia carefully, she shut her eyes and lifted her head, slowly taking a deep breath, pulling the fresh air down into her lungs. She exhaled then finally took a couple steps down the door. Everyone gathered around the opening of the Dropship, watching over each other's shoulders... Then she did it; Octavia became the first person to touch the ground in nearly 100 years. 

She threw her fists in the air, took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs. "We're back, bitches!" 

Jasper, Monty and I all shared a look. We ran screaming with excitement from the ship with the others. My dream had finally become reality, humanity was home. We were home. 

~ 

The boys and I ran through the surrounding woods for a while before we decided on figuring out what everyone else was doing. Really, they knew I wanted more information on the other kids we'd been sent down with. I was somewhat of a deep well of knowledge, if it had occurred on The Ark at some point before I was put in the Sky Box, then I knew about it. I had ways of getting to know people's stories, things they'd rather keep tucked away deep within themselves. Of course, that only made my desire to know the truth, grow. There were only a few people left that I hadn't yet had the privilege of digging under their walls, but considering we were stuck on Earth together, I would get what I wanted eventually. 

"Hey, what do you think they're talking about?" I asked Jasper once we'd approached the Dropship again. Wells and Clarke stood a few feet away, pouring over something I couldn't see clearly from that distance. Jasper simply answered by patting mine and Monty's shoulders and walking over to the others. 

Jasper quickly glanced over his shoulder at Monty and I, then turned back to Clarke and Wells, speaking loud enough for Monty and me to hear. "Ah, cool, a map. They got a bar in this town? I'll buy you a beer." 

"You mind?" Wells suddenly grabbed Jasper's upper left arm and pushed him away from Clarke and the map. 

"Whoa." Jasper's face twisted uncomfortably as he was pushed back toward where I stood with Monty, watching the confrontation between him and Wells. 

"Hey, hey, hey, hands off of him. He's with us." A guy I knew as Murphy and eight others crossed the small clearing and stopped in front of all of us. His first name was John, though he was usually referred to as Murphy. The guys behind him were clearly loyal to him, following behind him as if he were their leader.  

"Relax. We're just trying to figure out where we are." Wells made a half-assed attempt to control the situation. If he thought he'd be able to tell John Murphy what to do, he had another thing coming to him. 

"We're on the ground. That not good enough for you?" Behind us, Bellamy stood with Octavia at his side, challenging the Chancellor's son. In my opinion, it was about damn time. 

Wells turned to face them, walking in their direction with Clarke following close behind. "We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority." 

"Screw your father," Octavia called out to him. "What, you think you're in charge here, you and your little princess?" 

Jasper made his way back over to Monty and me, the three of us stood close together listening to the conversation happening in front of us. I ruffled his hair and turned my gaze to the back of Clarke's head as she spoke up. "Do you think we care who's in charge? We need to get to Mount Weather. Not because the chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this'll be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a 20-mile trek, okay? So, if we want to get there before dark, we need to leave now." 

"I got a better idea. You two go, find it for us. Let the privileged do the work for a change." Bellamy said, addressing Clarke and Wells. His suggestion elicited a chorus of agreement from almost everyone that had gathered to watch them. 

Wells glanced around the group. "You're not listening. We all need to go." 

Beside us, Murphy pushed past Clarke and shoved Wells forward. "Look at this, everybody – the Chancellor of Earth." 

"Think that's funny?" Wells challenged. 

Murphy rushed forward, hooked his left foot behind Wells' right one and kicked, hard. I watched on with the others as Wells' leg was wrenched to the side and he landed on the ground on his back. I knew it was only a matter of time before he'd get himself beat up, not even on the planet for an hour and he was already pissing people off. 

"No, but that was." Murphy circled back around and stared down the other boy where he lay on the ground, then slowly stood back up. "All right. Come on." 

I'd seen enough; I shook my head and turned to weave my way through the crowd behind me. Before I could take a step, Monty gently grabbed my wrist. I looked at him over my shoulder, knowing what his question was going to be. "Dude, we were just dropped on the side of a mountain on Earth. There are better things to do than watch these morons have a cockfight. I'll see you later, okay?" 

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Finn sitting above us on the Dropship, looking down on the two boys. He jumped down, landing between them. "Kid's got one leg. How about you wait until it's a fair fight?" 

"Hey, Spacewalker, rescue me next." Octavia stepped forward, addressing Finn and he gave her a soft smile. At least it was something else for everyone to focus on rather than watching Wells get his ass kicked by Murphy before we'd even had a chance to see what all was out there. Thankfully, without a fight to hold our interest, everyone began to disperse. 

When I turned to leave again, I saw Jasper staring after Octavia as if she was the prettiest and only girl left in the world. I rolled my eyes, the kid was in over his head, especially with her older brother there with us. There was no way Bellamy Blake would let any of these guys get within a foot of Octavia. I tacked his name onto my list of people to find out about, from the looks of it, he was going to be one of the hardest ones. This would be fun; the hard ones always had the best secrets. An elbow jabbing me in the side pulled my gaze away from the two siblings and back to the boys next to me, they'd caught me staring. Well, this would be fun to explain if they decided to go snooping around my thoughts. 

I shrugged, feigning innocence and redirected my attention just in time to notice Finn grabbing Monty and Jasper by the shoulders, and one of them grabbed me by the arm. We suddenly spun around and stopped in front of Clarke and an injured Wells. 

"Five of us. Can we go now?" Finn asked. The boys and I cocked our heads to the side, clearly being brought into a conversation that didn't concern us in the first place. 

"Sounds like a party. Make it six." Octavia said enthusiastically as she walked up and joined us. 

Just as I predicted, Bellamy was at her side in seconds. "Hey, what the hell are you doing?" 

"Going for a walk." 

I moved off to the side once Clarke approached us and took Finn's wrist in her hands. She studied the metal cuff on his wrist, then looked up at him. "Hey, were you trying to take this off?" 

"Yeah. So?" He replied, lifting his eyebrows questioningly. It was then that I realized that I hadn't even wondered what the wristbands were for, not since we'd actually made it down here. And if Clarke was so interested in why Finn was trying to remove his, then it must've been more important to everyone back on The Ark than we knew. 

"So, this wristband transmits your vital signs to The Ark. Take it off and they'll think you're dead." 

"Should I care?" 

"Well, I don't know. Do you want the people you love to think you're dead? Do you want them to follow you down here in two months? Because they won't if they think we're dying. Okay. Now let's go." 

Clarke's warning echoed in my head and when the others turned to leave, I decided to hang back. I made up some stupid excuse about wanting to stick around and lend an extra pair of hands to help set up camp for the night, luckily Jasper was too infatuated with Octavia find it the least bit suspicious and I was able to wave him and Monty off on their journey. The front of my wristband seemed to glint in the sunlight as my wrist moved back and forth, all I could think about was figuring out a way to get it off. No part of me wanted my mother coming down to Earth. I dropped my arm and spun around quickly, knocking into the person behind me. 

"Whoa, hey, slow down and watch where you're going. What's your name, kid?" Bellamy's hands gripped my shoulders and he kept me steady, holding me up so I wouldn't go crashing to the ground. I looked up at him, noticing the scheming look behind his dark brown eyes. Suddenly, I'd gotten an idea. 

"I'm three days away from turning 18 but considering there's no way you could've known that, I'll let the 'kid' slide." I straightened up, folding my arms across my chest. "You've got secrets, Blake. So, do I and I'm gonna need your help." 

He chuckled dryly and continued to stare me down. "Right. What makes you think I'm going to give it to you." 

"Because I know you, I know you'll do anything to protect your sister. And if you don't want your secrets getting out, your help is the only thing that'll buy my silence." 

"No, no way. I don't believe that for one second. What could a nobody like you possibly have on me? In case you haven't noticed, you were sent to your death. Just like the rest of us." 

"Yeah, that's true. Doesn't mean I don't know what you're trying so hard to hide." 

"Prove it," Bellamy's eyes narrowed, never once moving from my face. He was calling my bluff and I was about to say the one thing that would ensure he trusted me from this moment on. 

I unfolded my arms and motioned for him to come closer, he dipped his head low. Placing my hands on his shoulders, I rocked up onto the balls of my feet and whispered in his right ear. "I know you're the one who shot the Chancellor..." 

His eyes grew wide, pupils dilating in shock at the words that had just breezily fallen from my lips. One of his hands shot up and wrapped tightly around my left arm, keeping me rooted in place. "How the hell do you know that?" 

"Ah, ah, ah. First things first, Blake. You agree to help me and I'll tell you anything you wanna know. Don't, and I'll have the truth about how you got onto the Dropship spreading around like wildfire faster than you can blink. Can I count on you?" God, this was a rush. Adrenaline was once again coursing through my veins; this kind of thing gave me a sort of high. I was untouchable. 

"You've got balls, kid." 

"Yeah, I do. So, will you help me?" 

He nodded and let go of my arm, at a loss for anything else to say. I smiled and turned to leave, tossing one last thing over my shoulder at the stunned man. "Danae Peters." 

As I expected, after he'd gotten over the initial shock of what I'd said, Bellamy sprinted after me. Once again, his hand closed tightly around my upper arm and he pulled me around to face him. His eyes met mine, searching for any sign of doubt, any sign that I might not be telling the truth. I held my ground, he let go. He checked to make sure the coast was clear, then stepped closer to me. "Okay, I'll bite. What do you want?" 

"I want this gone." I held up my right wrist between us, the metal on the wristband flashed in the sunlight. 

"You don't want them coming down here. Why?" 

"There's someone up there that I really don't want to see. Figure out how to get the others to take this thing off of their wrists and I'll tell you the rest." 

"All right, it's a deal. But we do this my way, you tell me what I want to know when I want to know about it and we won't have any problems. Come with me, I have an idea." Bellamy's voice was firm, unwavering. 

I knew he meant what he said just as much as he knew that I meant it, too. I was interested to see what he had in mind, so I clasped my hands together behind my back and turned to follow after him. We stopped walking after a few minutes and Bellamy signaled toward the Dropship. My gaze followed the path of his arm and landed on Murphy and one other person that I recognized to be John Mbege, they were standing about five feet away from Wells. 

"Find any water yet?" 

"No, not yet, but... I'm going back out if you want to come." Wells turned to the right, eyeing something against the side of the Dropship before turning back to Murphy. 

"You know, my father, he begged for mercy in the airlock chamber when your father floated him." Murphy's grudge against Wells was rooted in the death of his father, that much was clear to me. 

"You spelled 'die' wrong, geniuses." Wells pushed past Murphy and John, walking away without giving them another chance to react. 

Bellamy gestured for me to follow him and approached the other two boys. He glanced at the side of the Dropship before coming to a stop in front of them. Now that we were closer, I could tell what had been carved into it.  _First Son, First To Dye_. Wells had been right, they'd spelled die wrong. I rolled my eyes and looked to Bellamy as he addressed Murphy and John. "If you're gonna kill someone, it's probably best not to announce it." 

Murphy chuckled but turned to face us. "You're not really a member of the guard, are you?" 

"No. The real guard will be here soon unless we stop it." Bellamy waited a moment, looking between the two of them. When they hesitated, he continued. "You don't actually think they're gonna forgive your crimes. Even if they do, then what? Guys like us, we're gonna become model citizens now, get jobs, if we're lucky - maybe pick up their trash?" 

"You got a point?" John spoke up. I took note of the way he was standing next to Murphy. The two were obviously close, but it was Murphy who held the reins in this friendship. He took a moment to glance at me. "Who's this?" 

"No. I got a question. They locked you up, dumped you down here like lab rats to die. So why are you helping them?" 

"The hell we are." 

"You're wearing those bracelets, aren't you? Right now, those things are telling them whether or not it's safe to follow us down." 

Murphy looked me up and down, I could tell he wanted to know who I was but his immediate concern was Bellamy's plan. He slowly pulled his gaze from my face and looked back at the older man. "Okay. You said we could stop it. How?" 

"Take them off. The Ark will think you're dead, that it's not safe to follow. You follow?" 

"Right. And if we do, I mean, what's in it for us?" 

Bellamy smirked. "Someone's got to help me run things." 

John looked over at me, his eyes narrowed and for some reason the way he was staring threatened to make my skin crawl. I probably would have been creeped out if the look had come from Murphy, but it didn't and I wasn't. John's eyes raked over my body then settled back on my face. He slowly stepped closer to me. "What's your damage, huh? Just following this guy around like a lost puppy. Who are you? Are you even supposed to be down here or are you just spying on us?" 

Bellamy raised his left hand between John and me, attempting to get the other boy to step back. 

"I got this," I pushed Bellamy's hand away and continued to look John directly in the eye. I cocked my head to the side, studying his face and scoffed. "Guys like you always have to put people like me down, don't you? If anyone here is a lost puppy, it's you. Have you always followed Murphy around like that? Doing everything he tells you to do? Are you even capable of thinking for yourself?" 

"Okay, who is this kid?" Murphy asked, pulling John back and moving forward to size me up. I didn't flinch. Instead, I laughed. 

"Again, with the 'kid' comment? I'm the one who's going to help you idiots get the rest of these assholes to do what you want." 

"Oh, yeah? How do you plan on doing that?" 

"I know things. Things people don't want anyone else to know. I have ways of finding them out." 

"Yeah, right." 

I turned to Bellamy, quirking one of my eyebrows in question. He nodded, giving me permission to prove myself to the doubting boys. My eyes settled on Murphy's face first. "You were sick with the flu and weren't getting better, your father stole antivirus medication from the Med Station, he was floated for his crimes. Your mother hated you after that, blamed you for what happened and drank herself to death." 

"So? Everyone knows that." Murphy shook his head, unconvinced of my importance to the cause. 

"You were bitter, angry, and alone. You couldn't take it out on the Chancellor, so you set fire to the office of the man who arrested your father. You've been rotting in the Sky Box waiting for your 18th birthday along with the rest of us ever since." I finished recounting the details of Murphy's arrest and watched him closely for a reaction. His jaw tensed and his eyes grew dark, I had him. 

"How do you know that? No one knows that." 

"I do. Everyone has secrets, Murphy. I just happen to know them all." 

An amused smile worked its way onto Bellamy's face and he finally spoke up again. "Are we good here?" 

Murphy nodded, the dark look in his eyes when I mentioned why he’d been put in Lockup, disappeared. "Yeah. Yeah, we're good. But I'll be keeping a close eye on our little... friend." 

Bellamy and I left Murphy and John by the Dropship. We walked on in silence for a good while, part of me wanted to tell him the rest of what I knew about what happened back on The Ark, but I wasn't yet sure that I could trust him. He'd done well, so far, getting Murphy and John to agree to what would essentially become an anarchy, it was clear he'd be the best person to lead all of us. I was still contemplating whether or not I should tell him what I knew when he finally decided to break the silence. 

"How is it you know so much about all of us? What's your story, kid?" He asked, calmly. He didn't seem upset about it, just curious. I raised my eyebrows at 'kid' and he seemed to catch on, chuckling at my hesitation. "Danae." 

"Because people like to talk. People love gossip. We love conflict, it's a part of the human condition. Me? I don't talk unless I need or want to, I listen. You'd be surprised how much you can learn about a person if you just shut up and pay attention." I answered, shrugging my shoulders. 

"So, you gonna tell me why you don't want people on The Ark coming down here?" 

"I'm not all that eager to be reunited with my mother." 

"No? How come?" 

"She's the reason my father was floated." 

Bellamy stopped short as I bit off the last word, turning to face me. He didn't say anything else, he seemed content to just listen, so I went on. "Monty and Jasper got caught for stealing herbs. The one time I didn't go with them and they forgot to replace what they took. I promised I would figure out a way to get them out of there, but before I could, my father found out. He was an addict; he agreed not to report me as long as I kept stealing for him, herbs, drugs from Med Station. Anything he needed to stay high. When I tried to tell my mother that he was sick, that he needed serious help, she thought that we were selling what we stole to get information to blackmail people with. Chose not to believe me when I told her the stealing had nothing to do with how I knew everyone's secrets. She was having an affair with Commander Shumway and told him about it, thinking he'd keep his mouth shut or at least be able to get me pardoned for being a stupid teenager. Instead, he ratted us out to Marcus Kane. I was arrested at the same time the Chancellor threw my father into the airlock chamber and floated him." 

"Christ! I'm sorry to hear that. No wonder you want to get rid of that wristband." He said, after taking a moment to process what I'd just told him. 

"Listen, Blake, I'm not looking for anyone's pity. I just don't need them following us down here, all right? In a way, I guess I should thank you for shooting the Chancellor, even if it was just so you could get down here to look after your sister." I looked up at him for the first time since beginning my story. The look on his face was one of genuine sympathy and understanding. 

"Thank me after we've stopped The Ark from coming down. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry your mother was such a bitch." Bellamy patted my shoulder once before walking away, leaving me alone to sort through the range of emotions that had built up during our conversation. 

~ 

Later that night, we'd used some of the wood Wells had brought back to build a fire. I'd gone around with him to most of the others, trying to convince them to take off their wristbands. Murphy did most of the talking, and I was there as insurance; if anyone tried to back out, I'd use what I knew about them to make sure they went through with it. There were only a few who needed an extra nudge in our direction, most of them wanted it as much as we did. But I had a feeling that they were the least of our worries; Clarke's mother, Dr. Griffin and Wells' dad were still up there on The Ark. They would be the hardest ones to get on our side. 

I stood off to the side watching. Murphy heated a piece of metal from the Dropship, we had everyone gather around the fire. One by one, kids stepped up to the rock in front of the fire and knelt down. Their right hands were placed on the rock and John held them steady while Murphy slipped the hot metal under the wristband and pulled up until it snapped off. This was it, we were actually getting people to remove their wristbands willingly, and all it took was being reminded about the fact that we were sent down to a planet that no one even knew was safe in the first place. At this rate, Bellamy, Murphy and I were sure everyone in camp would be out of their wristbands by the time Clarke and the others returned. 

The plan was that I would keep my wristband on until Monty and Jasper got back, the plan was for me to see if I could convince them to remove theirs with me. The three of us had been attached at each other's hips since we were kids, we did pretty much everything together. As the current girl sitting in front of the rock finally had her wristband removed, the group erupted into a mess of cheers. Beside me, Bellamy stepped forward to address the crowd. "Who's next?" 

"What the hell are you doing?" Wells asked, limping toward us. The noise must have drawn his attention from inside the Dropship and he'd made his way out to where we were. 

Bellamy stopped John from approaching Wells and turned to address him on his own. "We're liberating ourselves. What does it look like?" 

"It looks like you're trying to get us all killed. The communication system is dead. These wristbands are all we've got. Take them off, and The Ark will think we're dying, that it's not safe for them to follow." 

"That's the point, Chancellor. We can take care of ourselves, can't we?" 

A chorus of cheers in agreement went up around the group, I remained quiet, studying Wells' face and body language. Something about him wasn't sitting right with me, I waited to see what he was going to do next before letting Bellamy or Murphy know what I was thinking. I listened intently as Wells continued. 

"You think this is a game? Those aren't just our friends and our parents up there. They're our farmers, our doctors, our engineers. I don't care what he tells you. We won't survive here on our own... And besides, if it really is safe, how could you not want the rest of our people to come down?" 

"My people already are down. Those people locked my people up. Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child. Your father did that." 

"My father didn't write the laws." 

"No. He enforced them, but not here, not anymore. Here, there are no laws. Here, we do whatever the hell we want whenever the hell we want. Now, you don't have to like it, Wells. You can try to stop it or change it, kill me. You know why? Whatever the hell we want." 

"Whatever the hell we want!" Murphy and I echoed Bellamy's last statement, soon the whole group was chanting those five words. 

"Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want!" 

As we all continued chanting what would become the 100's new motto to live by, Wells stepped closer to Bellamy, closing the gap between them. The two of them stared each other down, neither one giving up, neither one backing away. A loud boom sounded miles above us in the sky, thunder. And then the rain began to fall. 

"Rain! Real rain!" One of the boys behind us shouted. "Check it out!" 

"We need to collect this," Wells told Bellamy, looking back at him. 

"Whatever the hell you want," Bellamy concluded. He turned to me as I slowly walked up to his side. "Think he'll give it up?" 

I shook my head. "No. Not unless you forcefully take it from him." 

"Good point. Got any good ideas?" 

"You posed as a guard to get on the Dropship, didn't you? Figure it out." 


	2. What Had To Be Done

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bellamy, Murphy, and Danae have successfully gotten most of the delinquents to remove their wristbands, much to the dismay of Wells, and Clarke who return to camp with harrowing news. Though tensions have risen between Bellamy, Murphy, Wells, Clarke and Danae, the five of them band together with Finn's help to locate the missing Jasper. Just when it appears that Bellamy and Danae had found their rhythm as partners, he makes a choice that jeopardizes their partnership and threatens to throw everything they're working toward into chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How about that first chapter? I'm having a really great time writing this, for some reason it comes rather easily to me. And now for one of many betrayals within the group. Here we go! Subscribe, like and comment if you enjoyed it!

The next morning, I woke up before the others and went for a walk when it was still dark out. The rain had stopped halfway through the night and the smell on the air was pleasantly intoxicating. I climbed a tree and sat watching the sunrise; all of the videos we'd seen, the books we'd read, none of that compared to the beauty unraveling before me. In person, it was incredible. I was enjoying witnessing the forest become drenched in sunlight when I caught sight of Wells making his way back toward the Dropship with a bundle of clothes in his hands. Everyone would be wondering where he'd gotten them, considering none of us had anything other than what we were wearing when they put us on the ship.

From my tree, I had a pretty good view of most of the forest, I could see the other kids fooling around, chasing each other. I could easily see the Dropship; I was far enough away that no one would bother me, but close enough to still hear what was going on around camp. I was comfortable above the ground, observing everyone interact. We all seemed to be getting along fairly well considering the tension that was still building between Murphy, Bellamy, and Wells. So far, ten of us had removed our wristbands but Bellamy was certain that with time, everyone else would follow suit. We weren't enemies, we had no reason to be, but we weren't friends either. We were a team, that was enough for me.

Wells finally broke through the tree line, he didn't seem to care about what was going on around him. No one else seemed to be noticing the clothes he was carrying, I was the only one that knew. Until he approached the Dropship and was stopped by one of the other guys that I'd come to know as Atom.

"Hey, uh, where'd you get the clothes?" Atom asked, approaching Wells with his eyes trained on the bundle he held.

"Buried the two kids who died during the landing," Wells answered without hesitation.

"Smart. You know, I'll take it from here. There's always a market for-" Atom reached for the pile but Wells stepped back protectively.

"We share based on need, just like back home," Wells said, cutting him off and taking another step back.

"You still don't get it, do you, Chancellor?" Bellamy's shirtless frame exited the Dropship, a handgun was tucked into the waistband of the guards pants he still wore. He walked toward Wells and took one of the t-shirts from his hands. "This is home now. Your father's rules no longer apply."

Wells moved to go after Bellamy only to be stopped by Atom. He struggled to get past the stronger boy, intent on getting the shirt back. Bellamy's voice halted both of their movements.

"Oh, no, no, Atom. Atom, hold up. You want it back? Take it."

Wells said nothing, throwing down the rest of the clothes and moved closer to him. "Is this what you want? Chaos?"

"What's wrong with a little chaos?" I called down. Both of their heads snapped up in my direction, Bellamy offered me a pleased smile, while Wells scowled in disbelief. I swung down from the branch I was sitting on and landed on the ground next to them. Wells' right wrist caught my eye. "Finally given up your wristband, I see. Maybe you are a lot smarter than we give you credit for."

"Your buddies took me hostage in the middle of the night and forced it off of me. I see you still have yours." Wells gestured to my wrist, looking at me as if I owed him some kind of explanation. I decided to humor the boy.

"I'm wearing mine just long enough to convince my best friends to remove theirs with me after Monty and Jasper get back, it comes off. Bellamy knows he can trust that I'll keep my word. Not that it's any of your business." I folded my arms across my chest and stared Wells in the eyes, knowing the defiance in mine was obvious.

A girl's scream tore everyone's attention toward the direction of where we'd had the fire the night before. Bellamy and I glanced at each other for a split second, then he pulled the handgun from his waistband and started off toward the fire with me, Atom and the rest following after him. When we got closer, we could see why the girl had screamed.

"Bellamy. Check it out. We want the Ark to think that the ground is killing us, right? Figure it'll look better if we suffer a little bit first." Murphy's voice had a sadistic tone to it. He was holding the girl by her arms with her head dangling over the fire. It was a cruel sight to see and there were probably better ways to make it so everyone back on the Ark would think we were dying, but Murphy had succeeded in getting more wristbands into the fire.

"Let her go!" Wells shouted, rushing forward and tackling Murphy to the side like a damn hero. He looked to Bellamy as we came to a stop in front of him. "You can stop this."

"Stop this? I'm just getting started." Bellamy answered, watching as Murphy got up from the ground and sucker punched Wells right in his face. Around us, everyone was chanting for the boys to fight, we had front row seats to Wells and Murphy beating the shit out of each other. Both of them were getting in good hits, but I hadn't expected Wells to gain the upper hand and barely knock Murphy out. He stood back up and turned to face us.

"Don't you see you can't control this?"

Murphy picked himself up and faced Wells again, his face was bloodied and already beginning to bruise. He held the knife that he'd made yesterday, in one of his hands. "You're dead."

"Wait," Bellamy moved between the two of them and held his hand up, throwing his own knife down at Wells' feet. "Fair fight."

Wells quickly picked up the blade, he and Murphy began circling each other once Bellamy had made it back over to where Atom and I were standing. Murphy lunged forward at Wells twice, but both times Wells had managed to evade the attack. And when Wells moved to attack Murphy instead, he was met with a quick slash to his upper left arm.

"This is for my father!" Murphy yelled out, lunging for Wells again.

I had to hand it to the Chancellor's son, he knew how to defend himself well in a fight. He somehow got ahold of Murphy's right shoulder and spun him around so that his back was pressed up against his own chest, he had Murphy in a headlock with the knife pressed against his neck. "Drop it!"

"Wells!" Clarke's voice cut through the noise around us, pulling everyone's gazes in her direction as she made her way over to us with Finn following behind her. "Let him go!"

Wells did as she said and dropped Murphy to the ground and turned to face her, but I could tell that Murphy had other plans. Once he was standing again, he moved to attack Wells a second time but Bellamy was quick and pushed him back.

"Whoa. Enough, Murphy." He walked past Clarke as Monty helped Octavia through the clearing. "Octavia, are you all right?"

"Yeah." She was injured but still alive.

"Where's the food?"

"We didn't make it to Mount Weather," Finn answered, sitting down on a nearby log.

"What the hell happened out there?"

Clarke glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes then returned to Bellamy. "We were attacked."

"Attacked? By what?" Wells asked next to her.

"Not what. Who. It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last grounder." Finn continued.

Clarke's eyes landed on me again, I felt strange under her gaze. "It's true. Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us.

"Yeah, the bad news is the grounders will."

Wells looked around momentarily then spoke up again. "Where's the kid with the goggles?"

"His name is Jasper," I said quietly, though I knew he'd heard me. I finally realized why I felt so weird as Clarke continued to stare at me. I looked around at the group, searching for the mop of brown hair with goggles sitting on top of it, but I couldn't find him. My eyes shot to Monty and my heart felt like it had moved into my throat, I slowly made my way over to him. "Monty... What happened? Where's Jasper?"

Behind me, Clarke answered. I could tell from the direction of her voice that she was still looking up at Wells, avoiding having to look at me. "Jasper was hit. They took him." There was a moment of silence and then she spoke up again. "Where's your wristband?"

"Ask him," Wells said, nodding in Bellamy's direction.

"How many?" Clarke turned on Bellamy, but he didn't answer.

"24 and counting," Murphy answered for him.

"You idiots. Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know that the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us!"

Bellamy finally moved from Octavia's side. "We're stronger than you think. Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they'll forgive your crimes. I say you're not criminals! You're fighters, survivors! The grounders should worry about us!"

"Yeah!" "Yeah!"

I looked back over at Monty as the crowd erupted into cheers. My eyes were brimming with tears, all I could think about was the possibility of never seeing Jasper again. The pain on Monty's face matched my own; the three of us were a team, we weren't complete without him. Monty pulled me into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around my back and pressing me into him. I buried my face into the crook of his neck and let out a strangled cry. After what felt like an eternity, he let me go and followed after Clarke.

~

I returned to camp with the others after the excitement from Bellamy's speech had died down; it hurt a little, having Monty walk away from me like he did, but I wasn't mad at him. Once the shock of hearing about Jasper had ebbed away, I knew I needed to be a part of the search party. I found Monty in the Dropship just as Clarke and Wells emerged from the upper level.

"You came back for reinforcements. I'm gonna help." He seemed to be trying to convince Clarke to let him go with whoever was going to go find Jasper.

Monty turned to her as she prepared to walk out. "Clarke, he's right. We need him. So far, no one else has volunteered."

"I'm sorry, Monty, but you're not going, either."

"Like hell, I'm not. Jasper's my best friend." Monty replied.

"Mine, too. He's always been like a brother to us, we're going." I finally said, stepping the rest of the way into the Dropship.

"You're both too important. You were raised on farm station and recruited by engineering."

"So?"

"So, food and communication." She moved forward and touched her left index finger to the side of Monty's head. "What's up here, it's gonna save us all. You figure out how to talk to the Ark and I'll bring Jasper back." Clarke turned to leave as Finn entered. "Hey. You ready?"

"I'm not going anywhere, and neither should any of you. That spear was thrown with pinpoint accuracy from 300 feet." Finn looked from Clarke to the rest of us."

"So, what, we let Jasper die?" I asked. Finn was slowly making his way onto the list of people I didn't agree with.

"That's not gonna happen," Clarke said reassuringly, then turned back to Finn. "Spacewalker? What a joke. You think you're such an adventurer, you're really just a coward."

"It's not an adventure, Clarke, it's a suicide mission."

"Build a wall. Use the fallen trees. I'll watch out for her." Wells told him, following after Clarke.

"Jasper looked up to you." The crestfallen expression on Monty's face was enough to make me want to punch Finn in his.

I pulled Monty aside and studied his face, he wasn't happy about being told to stay behind but he did it anyway. I, on the other hand, had never been too great at following the rules. In fact, Monty and Jasper hadn't been either, but it was clear to me that he was going to follow Clarke's orders anyway. I sighed. "I'm going with them. I'll make sure Clarke keeps her word. We'll find Jasper, I promise."

Monty nodded, knowing it was stupid to try and talk me into stay behind. He pulled me in for another hug and spoke softly into my ear. "I would follow you guys anywhere."

"Me, too," I answered back, giving him one last squeeze. I glanced at Finn as I turned to leave, he had an apologetic look in his eyes. "Make sure he's still alive and breathing when I come back. Think you can manage that?"

"Yeah," he stepped to the side allowing me to move past him and out of the Dropship.

I didn't see Bellamy or Murphy anywhere once I'd finally exited the ship, which only meant one thing, Clarke had recruited them to go with her. Knowing what I did about the two of them, I was almost certain that they had agreed to go with an ulterior motive, my guess was that it had to do with getting Clarke's wristband. Since she had demanded that we keep them on, I was more than willing to get rid of mine already. I slipped past Atom and John, making my way back toward the clearing we'd all been in that morning. 

"Bellamy! Murphy! Wait up." I called out upon seeing the two of them just beyond the tree I had climbed. They stopped momentarily, allowing me to catch up with them and then resumed walking.

"Since when are we in the rescuing business, huh?" Murphy asked Bellamy. I couldn't blame him for wondering, especially since Bellamy Blake didn't seem like the rescuing kind if it wasn't about his sister.

"The Ark thinks the prince is dead. Once they think the princess is too, they'll never come down. I'm getting that wristband, even if I have to cut off her hand to do it." Bellamy answered, keeping his eyes trained on the back of Clarke's head. Bellamy Blake was not the rescuing kind.

"Hey, speaking of wristbands... Use that knife of yours, Murphy, and pry this thing off of me." I kept my voice low so Clarke and Wells wouldn't have a chance of hearing me. I knew that if she had, they'd try their best to stop me from doing it and no part of me wanted to deal with that.

Bellamy looked at me questioningly. "Hold on. I thought the plan was for you to wait and convince your friends to remove theirs with you?"

"Yeah, so did I. But the plan has been compromised. Will you just take it off? Now."

"You heard the lady, take off her wristband."

"Gladly," Murphy moved behind me and grabbed my right hand, pulling my arm back. We kept walking so that Clarke and Wells wouldn't get suspicious and come running. Surprisingly, Murphy tried his best to be as quick and painless as he could while moving, it took a few tries but the pressure on my wrist was finally relieved as he slipped his knife under the edge of the wristband and finally got it free. He moved from behind me and spoke teasingly, handing me the metal cuff. "As you wished, princess."

"Call me princess again and I'll cut out your tongue," I retorted, using the same mocking tone that Murphy had. I took the wristband from him and shoved it into my jacket pocket. The three of us smiled and picked up our pace. There was now one less of us Delinquents on the Ark's radar, I couldn't be happier about it.

Murphy and I followed after Bellamy as he ran to catch up with Clarke and Wells. When we got closer, he called out to them. "Hey, hold up. What's the rush? You don't survive a spear to the heart." He glanced over his shoulder at me. "Sorry, no offense."

I shrugged my shoulders, letting him know that I wasn't taking offense to his statement. Jasper was my best friend, the closest thing I had to a brother, but I wasn't stupid. The chances of him surviving a spear to the chest were slim, but I also know Monty wouldn't have insisted that they go after him if there wasn't the slightest possibility that he was alive.

"Put the gun away, Bellamy," Wells demanded. I was getting tired of the Chancellor's son thinking he could boss the rest of us around.

"Why don't you do something about it, huh?" Murphy grabbed Wells by the shoulder and pushed him back.

"Jasper screamed when they moved him," Clarke began, looking at Bellamy and then settling her eyes on my face. "If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste."

Bellamy reached for Clarke's right hand. "As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go."

"You're okay with this? Jasper is supposed to be your best friend, yet you seem content to just follow these two blindly."

"Hey! You didn't know anything about him until yesterday. Monty, Jasper and me? We grew up together, we know everything about each other. So, don't you dare talk to me about my priorities." I turned on Clarke faster than any of us had expected, stepping forward and sizing her up. I'd had enough of her self-righteous attitude. I was just about to square up and punch the condescending look off of her face, but Bellamy grabbed hold of my wrist before I could.

"The only way the Ark is gonna think I'm dead is if I'm dead. Got it?" Clarke said, turning her attention back to the dark-haired man next to me.

"Brave princess."

"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" Finn's voice had all of us turning to look back as he walked up. Suddenly, I didn't care too much about Clarke's attitude. Instead, I was angry at the fact that Finn was now standing in front of me.

"What the hell are you doing here? I told you to make sure Monty would be okay until I got back. Does keeping your word not mean anything to you?"

"He's a big boy, he can take care of himself. He'll be fine." Finn answered, looking at me for a split second. "You call this a rescue party? Got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me."

The boys and I watched as Finn and Clarke walked away. My blood was boiling and I knew Bellamy and Murphy could tell. Every part of me wanted to run after the two of them, get in their faces and scream at them until they told me why they were acting like they were the two greatest people on the planet. They'd been stuck down here right along with the rest of us, what made them more important all of the sudden? I moved to follow after them, Bellamy's arm shot up to stop me and I turned on him for the first time since we'd met.

"Danae. Don't. They're not worth it."

"Worth it? Worth it? Do you think they're doing this because they care? They spent one day with Jasper, I've known him for 17 years."

"I know, we'll find him. It's gonna be-"

I cut him off, not in the mood to hear his reassuring bullshit at the moment. "What? Fine? If you think finding Jasper is going to be easy or that Her Highness is going to give up that damn wristband, then you are dumber than I thought."

"Danae. Danae, wait..." Bellamy let out a sigh but he didn't follow after me. I didn't look back as I caught up with Murphy, leaving Bellamy behind with Wells. I had no desire to be near either of them.

I walked quietly with Murphy for a while, I was seething and he must have known. But being Murphy, he had this cruel need to make everyone as miserable as he was. We were all miserable, the only difference between him and the rest of us – he got enjoyment out of other people's pain. It was only a matter of time before he said something to try and get under my skin. Much to my surprise, he didn't say anything annoying until the four of us were approached by Finn and Clarke.

They led us to a river they had found, showing us the rocks where they figured Jasper had been just before we'd gotten there. The blood left on them was still wet, indicating that Jasper had been there recently.

Clarke turned to me with a grim expression on her face, she seemed hesitant to address me again after our confrontation earlier. She sighed, reached into her bag, then slowly handed me the item she pulled from it. Jasper's goggles. "Danae... We, uh, we found these between the rocks over there."

I reached for the goggles and knelt down next to the rocks Clarke was pointing to. "Here?" I gestured to the spot and turned to Clarke, when she nodded, I turned back. "Jasper loves these things, he's worn them since the day he got them, never takes them off."

"What's your point? We don't have time to waste on you being sentimental; while you take your trip down memory lane, Jasper could be dying. So, his goggles were removed, he'll get them back when we find him."

"Yeah, if he's still alive by then," Murphy said with a dry chuckle. His smile faded when I threw a hateful glare his way.

"Of the six of us out here right now, Danae knows him the best. If she thinks that what she has to say is relevant, we're listening to her." Bellamy told them, then looked at Clarke. "Unless you want to give up that wristband?"

Clarke rolled her eyes with a sigh, turning to me again. "Fine. Danae, what is it?"

"That is it. He never takes these off, never. He wouldn't let them be removed without a fight, injured or not. He'd bite anyone who tried." The annoyed and confused looks on her, Wells and Finn's faces told me that they weren't following my thought process. "Jesus, where's Monty when I need him? Bellamy, remember what I told you when we met yesterday?"

"Yeah, you said 'Everyone has their secrets'."

"Exactly, everyone has their secrets. And these goggles are one of Jasper's. Okay, look," I grabbed the left sleeve of my jacket and pulled it up so they could see the bite scars on my forearm. "Monty, Jasper and I would do anything for each other. But we would also do anything to irritate each other because we're family and that's what families do. Jasper pissed me off one day, so I took his goggles. The son of a bitch bit the shit out of my arm, he took them back, made sure I got over to Med Station and then went back to work."

Realization spread over Clarke's features. "Right, I remember that day. I was helping my mom when you came in, I stitched you up. You told me you'd gotten into a fight with your best friend, I told you there was no way you could be best friends and do something like that to each other."

"Yeah, except you didn't know either of us. He came back later that night, we met up with Monty and the three of us stole more herbs as if nothing had ever happened. Like I said, he wouldn't have given these stupid things up without a fight, I have the scars to prove it. This is his way of telling us he's close by."

Finn scoffed. "We know he's close, that's what I said. This whole story was pointless. We should be out there tracking him down, not sitting here listening to you drone on about old memories."

"Danae, what are you saying?" Wells asked, finally speaking up.

I looked around the group and sighed, my eyes landed on Finn's face. He was studying me closely for a moment, reading between the lines. "She's saying Jasper wouldn't have left the goggles if he thought they were going to kill him. There would be no need point because we wouldn't be able to save him, anyway."

"Okay, so why is that relevant?"

Bellamy's gaze caught mine and I tried to hide the desperation in them. He knew exactly why finding Jasper's goggles was so important to me. "Because they didn't take Jasper to kill him, they took him as a warning."

The looks on all six of our faces were varying in degree; Murphy seemed bored and agitated, Clarke looked slightly guilty but also worried, Wells appeared to be threatened by Finn's presence, Finn was focused, Bellamy remained stoic and I was numb.

After a few minutes of silence passed between us, Finn turned to Clarke, no doubt wanting her to follow him again. His voice was calm but firm. "Let's go, we're close." He started off in the direction he thought the Grounders had dragged Jasper, then turned back to me. "Danny? We'll find him."

I nodded slowly, grateful for Finn's reassurance now that I knew he wasn't just doing this for Clarke, but because I was able to get him to see how much it meant to me. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all? At least, I hoped he wasn't. I reminded myself that everyone's got their secrets, even nice guys like Finn Collins and shook the thought from my head. I threw one last glance in the others' directions and stalked off after him.

Finn continued to lead us down the river, following footprints, blood trails, anything that could possibly lead us to Jasper. The group was quiet, none of us had said anything since I finished telling them my story. They were either on edge or being nice for my sake, either way, I appreciated the silence. That is until Murphy decided to disturb the awkward peacefulness.

"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?"

"We don't. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker." Bellamy answered him. He seemed to be getting more and more fed up with our little side quest the longer we had to follow Clarke and Finn's leads. I could tell he was holding back for my sake, and I desperately wished he wouldn't. I didn't want any of them treating me any differently just because my best friend might not make it back alive.

Wells spoke up again, answering Bellamy in a way that to me, seemed like he was trying to impress someone. "It's called 'cutting sign'. Fourth-year Earth skills. He's good."

"You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?" Finn called over his shoulder. He was right, too much noise would definitely draw unwanted attention to our position. He stopped next to a small tree with a few broken branches and crouched down beside it, he touched the ground in front of him and turned to Clarke when she bent down to see what he was looking at. I could only assume it was more of Jasper's blood.

"See? You're invisible." Bellamy said, leaning toward Wells. I chuckled next to him; Bellamy wasn't afraid to show his complete distaste for Wells, it shouldn't have amused me but it did.

A loud groan somewhere off in the distance had all six of us looking up ahead, I could have sworn it sounded like Jasper but I wasn't sure. My heartbeat picked up at the possibility that it could've been him.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy asked.

Clarke stood up and glanced at Bellamy before moving off in the direction of the sound. "Now would be a good time to take out that gun."

I couldn't take the anticipation any longer and broke out into a run; that was Jasper's voice, it had to be. I could hear the others running after me, calling my name in a futile attempt to get me to slow down and wait for them, I didn't care. I broke through the trees with the others coming up behind me.

"Jasper," Clarke said softly behind me.

The sight before us was enough to stall all of our movements for a few moments. It was Jasper and he didn't look good. He was hanging from a tree with his hands tied to the limb directly above his head, he had multiple cuts on his torso and a rope around his waist held him to the trunk of the tree. He was moaning in pain and all I wanted to do was switch places with him.

"Oh, my god. Jasper?" Clarke began making her way toward the tree.

"Clarke, be careful." Finn's voice warned, but it sounded distant to me.

"What the hell is this?" Bellamy's voice met my ears, but he seemed to be far away, too.

"Jasper!" Time stood still, my heart hammered inside my chest. I pushed Clarke out of the way and ran, a broken cry tore its way from the back of my throat as I made my way to the tree. The rest of the forest faded from view, my vision tunneled, all I could see was Jasper hanging there in agony. His name repeatedly fell from my lips, I couldn't breathe, all I knew was that I needed to get to Jasper. I pushed past Bellamy, the next step I took had my feet falling from under me as the ground gave way. I screamed as I began to fall, Bellamy's right hand closed around my wrist and stopped me from entering the hole. He held tightly to me as I dangled over the large pit of stakes that would no doubt kill me instantly if I fell, my life was literally in Bellamy Blake's hands.

Fear replaced the anger that had been present in my gunmetal eyes as I stared up into his dark brown ones. His grip on my wrist was tight but I felt no pain. Suddenly the others' voices returned to my ears as they shouted for Bellamy to pull me up.

"Danae! Get her up! Pull her up! Pull her up! Get her! Pull her up!" Finn led the others to Bellamy's side. He and Murphy each grabbed hold of one of Bellamy's arms with Wells wrapping his own arms around Bellamy's waist. They all struggled to help him pull me out of the hole, Murphy grabbed onto my arm as they dragged me back up and set me on the ground. I was gasping for air, but I was safe.

"You okay?" Finn asked. He held onto my shoulders, helping me scoot as far away from the pit as possible. When I nodded, he helped me to my feet, then let go and backed away, giving me room to breathe.

"Are you hurt?" Clarke appeared by my side, she hesitated then gently touched my face, looking me over for injuries. I shook my head and she dropped her hands back to her side, her attention now returning to Jasper. "We need to get him down."

"I'll climb up there and cut the vines," Finn looked at me one last time before walking along the outside edge of the hole and moving toward the tree.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm with you." Wells moved away from Clarke, taking a step after Finn.

"No. Stay with Danae and Clarke. And watch him." Finn looked toward Murphy. "You. Let's go."

"There's a poultice on his wound," Clarke began, studying Jasper's body.

"Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?" Wells asked her. Their voices were beginning to fade from me again, slower this time.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch likes its dinner to be breathing," Bellamy remarked.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch is us," Finn said, looking back at us.

Knowing that Jasper was in so much pain broke me, he was my best friend, my brother. Monty and I wouldn't survive without him. I couldn't see anything except Jasper, all I wanted was to get him down from that tree but I felt paralyzed. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. The only thing I could do was scream, so I did. I took a deep breath and doubled over, the sound that came out of my mouth was loud and harsh. I pushed the air from my lungs, screaming Jasper's name as if it would help him stay alive. The shrill sound of my voice was enough to alert anyone around of our position but it was the only way that I could release the anguish I was feeling.

Murphy's head snapped toward me and he yelled out to Clarke as he and Finn climbed the tree. "Clarke! Shut her up!"

"I... I-I don't... What am I supposed to do?" Clarke just stood there shaking her head, unsure of how to keep me from screaming.

"Don't just stand there, she's going to get us killed! Shut her up!"

"Danae, you have to stay quiet." Wells made his way over to my side and gently touched my arm. He spoke in a soothing tone that only served to upset me even more. Despite Wells' efforts, I didn't stop. I kept screaming for Jasper.

"Are you kidding me? Shut her the hell up, now!"

Bellamy finally stepped over to us and pushed Wells out of the way. He grabbed one of my arms and pulled my back against his chest, then clamped his right hand over my mouth effectively muffling the sound. He spoke firmly in my ear and even though I kept screaming, he seemed satisfied enough. "Jasper needs you to shut up, Danny. Screaming isn't going to save him, it's going to kill all of us. Is that what you want, huh?"

I shook my head, struggling against Bellamy's hold. The more I tried to break free, the tighter his grip on me became. I pulled against him until I didn't have the strength to stand up anymore and when my knees buckled, he lowered us to the ground. I couldn't stop my cries; my throat was becoming raw but the sound was quieter now.

"Hurry up, Murphy," Finn said. The two of them had made it into the tree and they each sat on either side of Jasper, working as quickly as possible to cut the vines away that held him to it. The rest of us were left on the ground, watching.

"Be careful," Clarke called to them. She and Wells were still standing behind Bellamy and me, listening to me scream and cry for my friend.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy asked, pausing his actions and looking around at the trees. A growling noise in the distance caught everyone's attention.

"Grounders?" Reluctantly, Bellamy's hand loosened from around my mouth and he stood up, surveying the trees. Something behind us caught his eye. Back where we'd entered the clearing, a jaguar stalked low to the ground, eyeing us through the tall grass. It snarled and began sprinting toward us.

"Bellamy, gun!" Clarke yelled for him. The jaguar was headed straight toward her; Bellamy, Wells and I would be next.

Still rooted in place, I stared ahead as the big cat kept coming and scrambled back away from it. If any of us died then, it would've been my fault. I was worried about Jasper and afraid for all of our lives, but there was nothing I could do.

Beside me, Bellamy backed up as well, feeling the back of his waistband for the handgun he'd tucked away when we found Jasper, it wasn't there. Shots went off anyway, and we all turned to see Wells with the gun in his hand. He shot at the animal a few times but it did nothing to deter it and it disappeared into the grass in front of us, stalking around it as we all waited to see what it would do next. Then it went quiet. In the next second, the jaguar sprang from its hiding place toward Bellamy, before it could land on him, Wells fired the gun again and dropped the large animal at Bellamy's feet.

"Now she sees you," Bellamy said, looking at Wells where the boy stood.

Finn and Murphy got back to work pulling Jasper from the tree. He was unconscious and he looked terrible, but he was alive. With him back on the ground, Wells moved forward to help Finn carry Jasper's lifeless body back to camp. I stayed where I was, when they passed by me a final cry clawed its way up from deep within. Bellamy and Murphy wrapped the jaguar in the parachute Wells had brought with them, then they were at my side in an instant, roughly pulling me to my feet. There was nothing more to be said and we followed Clarke, Wells, and Finn back through the forest.

"Bellamy, we're not going to make it back alive if she keeps this up," Clarke called over her shoulder. Her eyes settled on my face, a look of sorrow and pity evident in the bright blue of her irises as she watched me shaking and desperately weeping for Jasper.

"I know," he answered, his voice hard. "Go, we'll catch up."

"We have to shut her up," Murphy told him impatiently. He was struggling to help carry the parachute and keep me moving forward.

"I know. Murphy, go with them." Bellamy eyed him sternly. Murphy looked like he wanted to protest, convince him to leave me behind, but he followed after the others when the older man continued to stare at him, dragging the parachute behind him. After Murphy left, Bellamy moved behind me. He wrapped his left arm around my neck and grabbed onto his wrist with his right hand. He pulled his arm against my throat, slowly cutting off my air supply. My mind was fuzzy, I was struggling to breathe.

"Sorry, kid." His voice sounded far away. The only way we would be able to get back alive was if I was unconscious, too, because my panicking was going to draw more unwanted attention to us. I would be furious with him when I woke up, even if he was saving my life at that moment. The last thing I remember was my body going limp and Bellamy lifting me into his arms before making his way back to the others. Everything slowly went dark...

~~

Bellamy knew exactly what he was doing, he knew it needed to be done and he knew it was going to change the dynamic between him and Danae. It was the hard decision but Bellamy made it. He didn't think about the looking on her face, he didn't think about the feeling of her neck against his arm, he didn't think about the struggling breaths she was trying to take. He focused on Octavia; he thought of what he would do to protect her, he thought of her face when she stepped off of the Dropship onto the ground for the first time. He thought of his sister.

The seconds and minutes ticked by, then Bellamy could feel Danae giving up fighting against him. Her hands fell back to her sides, her body went limp. Bellamy lifted her into his arms and went after Murphy and the others. Wordlessly, he caught up with Murphy and stopped the boy. They needed to get back to the Dropship as quickly as possible, but it was going to be hard to do with only one person dragging the dead jaguar back.

"Is she..." Murphy stopped short, seeing Danae unmoving in Bellamy's arms.

"No, she'll be fine. Take your jacket off and lay it down on top of the parachute." Bellamy ordered. As soon as Murphy's jacket was laid on top of the wrapped jaguar, they carefully placed her down.

"She's going to kill you."

"Better her than whatever's out here. Let's go."

They both grabbed one end of the parachute and carefully lifted it from the ground, it was admittedly heavier with Danae's body lying on top of the jaguar, but it was the only way they could get her back to camp. Silence fell between the two of them as followed after Clarke and the boys.

"Where's Danae?" Clarke was the first to notice her absence. Her face twisted into an expression of worry as she looked behind them.

"She passed out. Guess she couldn't handle the stress." Bellamy's voice remained calm as he nodded down to the middle of the rolled parachute, indicating that Danae's sleeping form was secured in the middle of it. He shrugged his shoulders as Clarke's gaze flickered between his face and Danae. "Well, now you don't have to worry about drawing attention to ourselves."

 The group finally made it back to the wall after dark, the rest of the 100 had scattered themselves around camp, waiting. They were tired, they were hungry, and they were all still alive. It wasn't long before Clarke and the others were spotted walking back into camp. Finn and Wells carried an unconscious Jasper between them, while Bellamy and Murphy carried Danae on top of the dead jaguar.

"They're back!" One of the boys shouted as Clarke led Finn and Wells to the Dropship.

Monty watched the two boys carry Jasper toward the Dropship, each of them with one of his arms slung over their shoulders. "Is he-"

"He's alive," Clarke answered, cutting him off. She pulled back the fabric acting as a curtain to shield the Dropship from the outside, and let Finn and Wells move past her. She called out to Monty's shocked form. "I need boiled water and strips of cloth for a bandage."

Octavia was about to follow the boy inside when Murphy and Bellamy dropped the heavy parachute on the ground outside of the ship. She fell to her knees beside her brother as he removed the half that had been covering Danae. Octavia's jaw dropped. "Bell, what the hell did you do?"

"What had to be done." Bellamy watched Murphy carefully lift Danae's unmoving form from the parachute and carry her to the Dropship, then turned to address the rest of the Delinquents. "Who's hungry?!"


End file.
